3 Remembrance of the Daleks AU
by Iamthe13thDoctor
Summary: A rewrite of the first serial of the 25th season of Classic Who. Third story featuring my OC, Nita. The Doctor and his companions Nita and Ace travel back to 1963 to retrieve the Hand of Omega, a powerful device created by the Doctor's Time Lord race, and keep it from the Daleks. Regrettably, I still do not own Doctor Who.
1. Chapter 1

_**Chapter One**_

In Shoreditch in the City of London in 1963 is a Secondary School. An elegant woman in a two piece suit walks round the corner and past a pair of boys kicking a football between them next to a black van. The rest of the pupils are entering the schoolyard but one small blonde girl comes out to watch the scene. The TARDIS is parked by a block of flats. The Doctor is walking with Ace and Nita. Ace is carrying a 'ghetto-blaster' on her shoulder, blaring out rock music.

"What's she staring at?" Nita asks.

"Your clothing's a little anachronistic for this time period, and that doesn't help," the Doctor answers, pointing to the ghetto-blaster.

The Doctor switches off Ace's music.

"Well, it's not our fault this decade's got no street cred. I mean, look at that kid," Ace says, pointing to the small blonde girl.

"Strange," the Doctor remarks.

"Oi, Professor, can we get something to eat now?" Ace asks.

The Doctor looks at the doors to the back of the black van. An aerial rotates on the roof and there is a distinct humming.

"You're not carrying any Nitro Nine explosives in there?" the Doctor asks, pointing to Ace's backpack.

"No," Ace replies, winking at Nita.

"What do you make of that van?" the Doctor asks.

"Dunno. TV detector van?" Nita suggests.

"No. Wrong type of aerial. For this time period, that's a very sophisticated piece of equipment," the Doctor replies.

"What's so sophisticated about that rig?" Ace asks. "I've seen better aerials on a CB. Professor, I'm hungry. Lack of food makes me hungry, you know."

"Lack of food makes you obstreperous," the Doctor observes. "Why don't you go and buy some consumables? There's a cafe down there. While I undertake a detailed and scientific examination of that van that has so singularly failed to grab your attention."

"Right," Nita agrees.

Ace and Nita walk away.

"Girls!" the Doctor calls.

"What?" Ace asks impatiently.

"Money."

"Oh."

The Doctor holds out a small pouch. Ace takes it.

"Thanks."

Ace and Nita leave as the girl watches the Doctor examine the van. The Doctor climbs up the external ladder to the van roof and uses his umbrella to measure the length of the moving aerial. The little girl goes inside the schoolyard.

'Return to Sender is playing in the cafe as Ace and Nita enter and a young man in a flying jacket watches Ace put down the ghetto-blaster and take off her rucksack. He is reading the Daily Mirror with the headline – "Give Your Passport To Police". Nita goes to the jukebox. Ace hits an ashtray with a knife while the Beatles regale them with "Do You Want To Know A Secret".

"Service! Oi, anybody home?" calls Ace.

The young man in the corner speaks. "Not like that."

"Like what, then?" asks Nita.

"Like this. Oi, Harry! Customer! Like that," the man demonstrates.

"Right," says Ace.

"Coming!" calls Harry from the kitchen.

"See? It's easy when you know how," the young man says.

Harry appears from the kitchen area. Nita has been observing details about the café. The menu is priced in shillings and pence, and the calendar on the wall is November 1963.

"Right, give it a rest, Mike," says Harry. "I had enough of that during the war Er, can I help you, girls?"

"Oh, yeah. Six bacon sandwiches and two cups of coffee, please," Nita requests.

"Six bacon sandwiches and two cups of coffee. Righty-o," says Harry.

Ace tips her pre-decimal coins onto the counter and stares at them, baffled.

The Doctor enters the school playground. The little girl is playing hopscotch by herself in the middle of four dark patches in the tarmac.

"Five six seven eight, it's a doc…" the girl stops when she see's the Doctor.

The Doctor tastes the residue of the nearest patch and goes to the girl, who runs off.

"She doesn't talk to strangers. Very wise."

The Doctor looks at the hopscotch markers and uses a small abacus before smiling and leaving. The girl is standing by the Boys entrance.

"Five, six, seven eight. It's a doctor at the gate," the girl sings.

The Doctor leaves the school by the old Girls gate and runs across the road. He gets into the black van.

"Hmm, you took your time," says the woman in the two piece suit with her back to the Doctor. "Get on the radio and tell the Group Captain. I think I've located…" She finally looks at the Doctor, who is examining her monitoring equipment.

"The source of magnetic fluctuation, perhaps," the Doctor suggests.

"A rhythmically pulsed fluctuation, yes," the woman confirms.

"I thought so. Any possibility of natural phenomena?"

"Not likely. It's a repeated sequence."

"So, it's artificial in origin."

"Yes. Excuse me?"

"Yes?"

"Who are you?"

"The Doctor."

"I'm Rachel. Professor Rachel Jensen."

"How do you do? I'm sure I've heard of you."

A voice comes over the radio: "Red Four, Red Four, come in please."

"Red Four receiving. Listen, Group Captain, there's this man… What? On my way."

Nita, Ace and Mike are walking along past the block of flats.

"Twelve pennies to the shilling, eight shillings to the pound right?" Ace asks, trying to get her head around the imperial system. Nita is even more confused as Australia had not only gone decimal, but also changed over to dollars and cents in 1969.

"No, twenty shillings to the pound. That makes two hundred and forty pennies in a pound. Where are you from anyway?" Mike asks.

"Perivale. Why? Oh, this is a stupid system," Ace complains.

"Twelve pennies to the shilling, twenty shillings to the pound, right?" asks Nita.

"Yeah. Are you from somewhere else?" asks Mike.

They walk past the TARDIS.

"Australia. So what's half a crown?"

"Well that's easy," says Mike.

"Sergeant!" Rachel calls from the van.

Mike runs off.

"Sergeant?" Ace asks, looking at Nita, who shrugs her shoulders.

"The Group Captain says he's under attack. We have to get moving," says Rachel.

Mike goes to drive the van. The Doctor pops his head out of the back doors.

"Girls, get in here!" calls the Doctor.

Nita and Ace get in the back and Rachel joins Mike up front.

"Matthews is hurt," says Rachel.

"Where are they?" asks Mike.

"At the secondary source, Totters Lane," Rachel replies.

The Doctor ears prick up. Totters Lane?

Soon the van arrives at a junk yard. "I M Forman, Scrap Merchant, 76 Totters Lane" says the painting on the big gates where a crowd of locals has gathered. The Doctor's mind goes back six life-times to when he lived here with his grand-daughter, Susan.

A blanket is put over the face of a fallen soldier by Group Captain Gilmore then he goes to meet the van which has been stopped by policeman.

"Military," says Mike, showing his I.D.

"Fine, sir." The policeman signals and Mike sounds the van's horn. They drive through the crowd into the yard proper. Everyone gets out of the van.

"What's the situation?" asks the Doctor.

"Who the devil are you?" asks Gilmore.

"I'm the Doctor and these are Ace and Nita. You must be with the military."

"Well, how do you know?" asks Gilmore.

"I'm very perceptive," the Doctor replies.

"Is he with you, Professor?" asks Gilmore.

"Yes," Rachel replies.

"Smith," says Gilmore.

"Sir?" asks Mike.

"Take the girls and set up a position by Red Six," Gilmore directs.

"Yes, sir," Mike replies. "Come on, girls."

Mike, Nita and Ace leave.

"You'd better come and take a look," Gilmore tells the Doctor.

The Doctor uncovers Matthews and unfastens his tunic to check his torso.

"No evidence of tissue damage. Ah, massive internal displacement."

"What?" asks Gilmore.

"His insides were scrambled. Very nasty," the Doctor replies.

"The effect of the blast?" asks Rachel.

"No. A projected energy weapon."

"Projected what?" asks Gilmore.

"A death ray?" asks Rachel.

"Very succinct. I presume you've got reinforcements coming?"

"Any minute now."

The Doctor takes cover behind some metal object.

"This is preposterous. A death ray? It's unbelievable," Gilmore scoffs.

"What a predictable response."

Nita, Ace and Mike go to a black van with no aerial on the roof.

"Miss Williams? Allison!" calls Mike.

A blonde woman wearing a striped scarf appears. "Sergeant, you're here at last. How's Matthews?"

"He's dead," Mike replies, regretfully. "Is Blue One responding?"

"What?" asks Allison, shocked to hear about Matthews. "Blue One? Yes, they'll be here in a minute. Dead, are you sure?"

"Whatever fired that weapon's trapped in there," The Doctor points to the shed. "There's no way out."

"How can you be sure?" asks Gilmore.

"I've been here before," the Doctor replies.

An army lorry drives in carrying a bunch of squaddies.

"Right, everybody out! Come on, quickly. Move it, move it. Squad, attention!" the Sergeant commands.

"Stand at ease," says Gilmore. "Right, now the situation is this. we have an armed hostile pegged up in that lean-to shed. I want the squad to cover the entrance. No firing unless I give the command. Is that understood?"

"Yes, sir," say the soldiers.

"Remember, he's armed and hostile, so keep under cover as much as possible," says Gilmore. "Sergeant."

"Sir."

"Detail some men to clear these civilians."

"Yes, sir." The Sergeant turns to the soldiers. "You two, come down with me and we'll sort this lot out." He addresses the crowd. "Now, let's have you all back as far as possible, please. Thank you, madam. There's nothing to be seen here."

Gilmore turns to Mike. "Smith."

"Yes, sir?"

"Take two men and get Matthews out of here."

"Yes, sir." Mike turns to two soldiers. "You two, fall out and follow me."

"I don't think you realise what you're dealing with here," says the Doctor.

"Doctor, I assure you these men are hand picked. They can deal with anything, provided they can see it. Right men, take up positions."

The Doctor joins Nita, Ace and Allison at Red 6 while Mike and the soldiers recover Matthews.

"Take his arms. Move him back to the truck," says Mike.

Something targets one of the soldiers and zaps him. There is a brief flash of his skeleton as he is flung back against some corrugated iron sheeting.

"Down!" the Doctor cries.

"Covering fire now!" Gilmore shouts.

Gilmore and the soldiers take up positions round and under the army lorry and send short bursts of bullets into the shed.

"Cease firing!"

The Doctor and Rachel run over to Gilmore.

"Get down!" shouts Gilmore.

"What was it?" asks Rachel.

"That was your death ray," the Doctor replies.

"I know that, but how?" asks Rachel. "To transmit focused energy at that level, it's incredible. It's…"

"Yes?" the Doctor asks, encouraging her to think about it.

"It's beyond the realm of current technology," Rachel finishes.

"If you can save the science lecture for a less precipitous moment," says Gilmore. "Now perhaps, Doctor, you could tell me what is going on?"

"You must pull your men back now. It's their only chance," says the Doctor.

"It's preposterous. We can't disengage now," Gilmore objects. "Whoever is in there, my men can handle it. Sergeant!"

"Listen to me, Brigadier."

"Group Captain. Group Captain Gilmore!" Gilmore corrects him.

"Nothing you possess will be effective against what's in there!"

"Sir?" the sergeant replies.

"Three men, rifle-grenades, even spread left right and centre. Fire on my command."

"Yes, sir."

"Captain, you're not dealing with human beings here."

"What am I dealing with? Little green men?"

"No, Little green blobs in bonded-polycarbite armour."

"Grenades are ready, sir," says the sergeant.

The Doctor tries to get Gilmore's attention. "Group Captain Gilmore."

"Fire!" cries Gilmore, ignoring the Doctor.

"Humans!" The Doctor is frustrated.

"Fire!" cries the sergeant.

KaBOOM! and the shed is obliterated in a fireball. Nita and Ace join the Doctor.

"That's some serious hardware. Did you see that, Professor?" asks Ace. "Unsophisticated, but impressive."

"Smith!" Gilmore shouts.

"Sir?"

"Get on the radio. Call up Blue Four and Six. Tell Four to pick up an ambulance on the way."

"Yes, sir."

"It doesn't matter how many men you get here. It isn't going to make any difference," says the Doctor.

"Doctor, my men have just put three high-explosive grenades into a confined area. Nothing even remotely human could have survived that."

"That's the point, Group Captain, it isn't even remotely human."

Mike gets inside the van and uses a field telephone.

"Blue Four, Blue Four, this is Red Six. Come in, please."

"Red Six, receiving."

"Blue Four. Group Captain Gilmore requests that you pick up an ambulance and proceed to Bravo Delta."

The alien targets Mike in the van, but he moves at the last moment and it misses, going straight through the cab and knocking a bunch of steel drums over.

The soldiers start firing again as Mike scrambles out of the van and joins in.

"Cease firing! Cease firing! Wait for a target!" Gilmore orders.

A seriously annoyed oversized pepperpot trundles out, burning round its base.

"Fire!"

The soldiers start shooting, so the Dalek fires back, hitting at least one more soldier.

"Aim for the eyepiece!" cries the Doctor. "Ace, give me some of that Nitro Nine that you're not carrying. Quickly."

Ace hands over a can.

"And another."

"It's my last can."

"I should hope so, too. Er, how long, the fuse?"

"Ten seconds."

"That's long enough."

The Doctor makes his way towards the Dalek, keeping under cover.

"When I tell you, head for the entrance," Gilmore tells Rachel. Take the girls with you."

"Then what?"

"I'll meet you back at HQ. Go now, Rachel!"

Nita, Ace and Rachel start heading towards the gate. The Doctor runs behind some barrels level with the Dalek.

"Oi, Dalek! It's me, the Doctor. What's the matter? Don't you recognise your mortal enemy?"

The Dalek reverses to turn and approach the Doctor, who takes the tops off the cans and puts them by a stack of bricks.

"Three, four, five, six."

The Doctor leaves and the Dalek arrives just in time for the explosion. It is wrecked, and the Doctor is on the ground.

"Smith!" shouts Gilmore.

"Doctor!" cries Nita, from the gate.

Nita and Ace run to the Doctor.

"Ace, you said ten seconds."

"Nobody's perfect, Professor. Are you all right?"

"Yes, of course I am. Can either of you drive?"

"Why?" asks Nita.

"Good, I thought so. Get in there."

Nita turns to Ace. "I hope you can drive, 'cause I can't"

The Doctor, Nita and Ace get into a black van as everyone else comes over to investigate their enemy.

"I want an emergency team here at the double," orders Gilmore. "Put a guard on that thing. Inform command HQ we will be returning there at once. And I want a weapons team at the Coal Hill School."

"Sir," Mike replies.

"And, Smith? I want them armed with ATRs."

"Yes, sir."

Rachel uses a pencil to examine the steaming green gunk.

"It has an organic content."

"Or an occupant," suggests Allison.

"What the devil is it?" Gilmore wonders.

"A Dalek," The Doctor replies, after Nita asks the same question. "Only trouble is, it's the wrong Dalek."

Ace tries to start the van's engine.

"Would the right one be better or worse?" asks Ace.

"Yes. Choke."

"No, thanks."

The Doctor pulls out the choke, freeing more fuel into the engine.

"What do you think you're doing?" Mike's head appears at the window.

"Borrowing your van."

They drive out of the yard, only hitting one barrel.

"These Day-leks…" Nita begins.

"Daleks," corrects the Doctor.

"Oh, Daleks. Where are they from?"

"From Skaro. At least, originally. They're the mutated remains of a species called the Kaleds. Left here."

"When were they left here?" asks Ace.

"No. Turn left here."

"Oh, right."

"No, left! You've missed the turning."

"What turn? Where?"

"Why don't you concentrate on where you're going?"

"Look, I'm doing the best I can. If you don't like it, you drive."

They drive under a railway arch and suddenly the Doctor and Ace have swapped places.

"The Kaleds were at war with the Thals. They had a dirty nuclear war. The resulting mutations were then accelerated by their chief scientist, Davros. What he created them he then placed them in a metal war machine, and that's how the Daleks came about."

"So that metal thing had a creature inside controlling it?" asks Nita.

"Exactly. And ever since the Daleks were created, they've tried to conquer and enslave as much as the universe as they can get their grubby protuberances on."

"And now they want to conquer the Earth."

"Nothing so mundane. They conquer the Earth in the twenty second century. No. They want the Hand of Omega."

"What's that?" asks Ace.

"One thing at a time, Ace."


	2. Chapter 2

_**Chapter Two**_

Gilmore enters the Territorial Army Centre at Acton and meets Mike in the corridor.

"Sir?"

"Yes, Sergeant, what is it? Who is this man?" asks Gilmore, indicating a smartly dressed man with old school tie standing next to Mike.

"Sorry, sir. This is Mister Ratcliffe. He's brought some of his men, I think they can be of some use to us."

"You do, do you? Mister Ratcliffe."

Ratcliffe comes to attention and clicks his heels before holding out his hand.

"Pleased to meet you, sir."

Rachel and Allison are inside the control room.

"We must get that Dalek to a well-equipped laboratory," says Rachel.

"And a half decent biologist," agrees Allison _._

"What do you do think we should do?"

"You're the Chief Scientific Advisor. It's your decision."

"Before I make any suggestions I want to catch up with the Doctor."

"Who is he, anyway?"

"Someone who knows a lot more about Daleks than we do. When I get hold of him, I'm going to get some answers out of him or…"

"Or what?"

"I'll set you onto him."

"He certainly seems to have a detailed knowledge of the Daleks, and given that they are not terrestrial, it is possible that he is…"

"Not of this Earth? An alien?"

"I just wish he was more obvious. You know, had green skin or antennae sticking out of his head or something."

In the school corridor, the Headmaster is putting a notice about car thieves up on the school notice board when the Doctor, Nita and Ace enter.

"Ah..." begins the Headmaster.

"Good afternoon," says the Doctor.

"And you would be?"

"The Doctor. And you?

"I'm the Headmaster here. Doctor, eh? Well, you're a bit over-qualified for the position, but if you would like to leave your particulars and references."

"References?"

"You are here for the job of school caretaker?"

"Oh, no. We're here for a completely different reason."

"Oh. What can I do for you, then?"

"Well, we would like to look round your school, if you don't mind?"

"I'm afraid that's out of the question."

"We've got reason to believe there is a great evil at work somewhere in this school."

"You'll have to be a bit more specific, Doctor."

The Headmaster touches his ear, as if he is wearing an earpiece although nothing is visible.

"But I don't think it would do any harm if you were to have just a quick look round."

"Thank you."

"My pleasure."

Gilmore and Mike are now inside the control room.

"Smith."

"Sir?"

"Are the anti-tank rockets being issued?"

"They're being taken direct to their position, sir. An additional consignment is going to the school."

"Good. Any news of the Doctor's whereabouts?"

"Red Four has been seen in the Coal Hill area, sir."

"He must be heading back to the school."

"What is happening about the Dalek?" asks Rachel.

"Don't worry. It's under guard. It's safe," Mike replies.

At the junk yard, the Dalek remains are hauled onto the back of a flatbed lorry.

"Right, get the tarpaulin over it," says Ratcliffe. "Come on, lads. Let's see you move. Right, let's go."

The Ratcliffe Building Contractors lorry drives off to reveal two unconscious soldiers.

At the school, the Doctor, Nita and Ace enter an old-style lab with Bunsen burners and racks of test tubes on the desks.

"You were expecting these Daleks, weren't you?" asks Nita.

"Yes, they're following me."

"I wouldn't be so pleased if I had a bunch of Daleks on my case," Ace remarks.

"You can always judge a man by the quality of his enemies."

Nita sits on a bench and picks up a book on the French Revolution. The Doctor has a sudden flash of memory. The book looks to be the same one his first Human companion Barbara loaned to Susan all those lifetimes ago. He goes to the window for some fresh air.

"Come and look at this," he says. "What do you make of that?"

The Doctor opens the window.

"It's a playground," says Ace.

"The burn marks. See them? Well?"

"A landing pattern for some kind of spacecraft, isn't it?" asks Nita.

"Very good."

"But this is Earth, 1963," says Ace. "Well, someone would have noticed. I'd have heard about it."

"Do you remember the Zygon gambit with the Lock Ness Monster? Or the Yetis in the Underground?"

"The what?" asks Nita.

"Your species has the most amazing capacity for self-deception, matched by only its ingenuity when trying to destroy itself."

"If the Daleks are following you, what are they after?" asks Ace.

"When I was here before, I left something behind."

"You mean the Hand of Omega?" asks Nita, remembering the Doctor telling her about it.

"Yes."

They leave the classroom, and Ace's ghetto blaster on the bench.

"What is the Hand of Omega?" asks Ace.

"Something very dangerous."

In Ratcliffe's office anteroom, Ratcliffe uncovers the remains of the Dalek. A rasping voice speaks to him from his office.

"Report."

Ratcliffe enters his office. The person is in a Dalek travelling machine and has their back to Ratcliffe, with a Dalek-like dome and eyepiece on their head, facing a large screen and futuristic control panel.

"My men have recovered the machine," says Ratcliffe. "The Doctor is co-operating with the military."

"That is to be expected," says the Dalek computer. "I must be informed of his movements."

"Yes, yes. We have our contacts," Ratcliffe replies. "I shall see that he is followed. That Dalek machine."

"Yes?"

"I should like to know exactly what it is?"

"A machine, a tool. Nothing more."

The Doctor and the girls are standing at a closed door which is the entrance to the cellar.

"What are we looking for?" asks Ace.

"Shush. Whoever it was landed the spaceship in the playground."

"And that would be?" Nita whispers.

"More Daleks."

"Oh, great," Ace says sarcastically. "I thought it might be something really nasty."

"Ah, the cellar. It could be down in there."

"Why the cellar?" asks Nita.

"Good place to put things, cellars."

The Headmaster observes them.

They open the door and descend the steps into the cellar.

"I wish I had some Nitro Nine," says Ace.

"So do I," says the Doctor.

"What are you expecting to find down here, anyway?" asks Nita.

"The unknown."

"Oh. Isn't that a bit dangerous?" asks Ace.

"Probably. But then if I knew what was down here, I wouldn't have to look."

Ace takes an aluminium baseball bat from her rucksack and holds it ready. They get to the bottom of the steps and discover a transmat platform, flashing.

"This is some severe technology!" Ace exclaims.

"Yes. Very elegant, very advanced. Flux circuitry elements."

"What is it?" asks Nita.

"It's a transmat. A matter transmitter. But transmitting from where? Within about three hundred kilometres."

"Professor?" Ace cries suddenly, as lights start flashing. "Professor, something's activating it."

"Very likely. It has an automatic activator." Ace's words finally register. "What? You're right. Something is beginning to come through."

A shape begins to materialize.

"It's another Dalek!" cries Nita.

"Excellent," says the Doctor.

"Will this one be friendly?" asks Ace.

"I sincerely doubt that. If I can just get the transmitter to de-phase at the critical point." He starts poking and prodding the device.

"Doctor!" Nita cries as the Dalek materializes.

"Any moment now. Quick! Down!"

The Dalek is nearly solid when it disappears in a swirl.

"The controls have gone dead," says Ace.

"Yes, the de-phase must have caused an overload."

"What did you do to it?" asks Nita.

"Well, I persuaded one half of the Dalek to materialise where its other half was materialising. The two halves tried to co-exist at the same point. The resulting reaction destroyed it. Dangerous things, transmats."

"So no more Daleks can be transported through here?" asks Ace.

"Well, it'll slow them down a bit until the operator can repair the systems."

"The operator?" asks Nita.

"Yes, the Daleks usually leave an operator on station in case of any malfunctions."

"And that would be another Dalek?" Ace asks nervously, looking around.

"Yes."

"Stay where you are!" shouts the Dalek operator. "Do not move!"

"The stairs!" the Doctor cries.

Ace gets to the top of the stairs first and bumps into the Headmaster.

"Oh, sorry," she says.

The Headmaster knocks out Ace and bolts the door closed.

Nita and the Doctor bang on the door.

"Ace! Ace! Open the door! Ace! Open…" they both shout.

The elegant cream and gold Dalek is gliding up the stairs behind the Doctor.

"You are the Doctor. You are the enemy of the Daleks!" the Dalek shouts. "You will be exterminated! Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate!"


	3. Chapter 3

_**Chapter Three**_

Ace wakes up and attacks the Headmaster. He goes down easily and she unbolts the cellar door.

"Exterminate! Exterminate!" the Dalek was screaming.

Nita and the Doctor fall backwards into the corridor and Ace bolts the door shut in the Dalek's face.

"Exterminate!"

"Doctor!" Nita was shaking and the Doctor puts an arm around her shoulders in comfort.

"What's the matter with him?" The Doctor nods at the Headmaster.

"Stomach ache," Ace replies with a smirk.

"School dinners," the Doctor mutters. "Give me a hand to move him."

"Professor, he tried to lock you in."

"Ace!"

They drag the Headmaster away from the door, and the Doctor finds some electronics implanted behind the Headmaster's left ear. The Doctor, Nita and Ace run out of the school just before the Dalek blasts the cellar door down.

The Headmaster wakes up. "I'm sorry."

"We must repair the transmat," says the Dalek.

"Yes."

An RAF Land Rover is parked up outside the school.

"What are you doing here?" the Doctor asks the airman in the Rover. "Oh, never mind. Get this thing out of here."

"I was ordered to deliver the ATRs to this position, sir," the airman replies.

"ATRs. Anti-tank rockets," the Doctor realizes.

"Yes, sir," the airman confirms.

The Doctor, Nita and Ace run round the back and open the canvas cover.

"Will these things be any good against the Daleks?" Nita asks the Doctor.

"It's not the Daleks we're after, it's the transmat."

Down in the school cellar, as usual it isn't the Dalek getting its sink-plunger dirty with actual work.

"You will remain here," the Dalek orders the Headmaster.

Outside Coal Hill School, the airman hands the Doctor a clipboard.

"You'll have to sign for them, sir."

The Doctor signs with a question mark then attempts to pocket the soldier's pen.

"Ahem."

"Come on," the Doctor says to the girls, while reluctantly returning the airman's pen.

The Doctor, Nita and Ace leave with weaponry. The airman starts to close up the back of the Land Rover when the little blond girl appears.

"Hello, love," the airman greets her.

The Doctor and the girls return to the school corridor.

"What about the Dalek? Won't he try and stop us?" asks Nita.

"Quite possibly. Stay close behind," the Doctor replies.

"Hey. It must have gone back down to the cellar," Ace says, looking around.

Wrong.

"You will be exterminated!" the Dalek shouts.

The Dalek fires and misses. The Doctor overturns a table as a barricade.

"Girls, get down!"

"Exterminate!"

The trophy cabinet is destroyed. Ace uses the anti-tank rocket. KaBOOM goes the Dalek.

"Ace!" shouts Ace.

"You destroyed it! The Doctor is surprised.

"I aimed for the eye-piece," Ace explains.

"This way!" says Mike, entering with a group of soldiers. "Move it, move it! You fetch the Group Captain. Any more?"

"No," the Doctor replies.

"Did you do that?" Mike asks Ace, impressed.

"It makes a lot of smoke, doesn't it," Ace remarks.

"Yeah," Mike replies, staring at Ace.

Gilmore runs in with Rachel and Allison. "You've destroyed it. Good."

"It is not good," the Doctor disagrees. "Nothing about this is good. I've made a grave error of judgment. Oh, I'm going to wish I'd never started all this. Group Captain, I must ask you to evacuate the immediate area."

"That's an absurd idea," Gilmore scoffs.

"Why, Doctor?" Rachel asks.

"I've reason to believe a major Dalek Task Force could soon be operating here."

"Great," Allison says sarcastically.

"And where will this Task Force arrive from?" asks Gilmore.

"One certainly is in place hidden somewhere in this vicinity. The other probably from a mothership in geostationary orbit."

"Be reasonable, Doctor," scoffs Gilmore.

"Do you doubt the non-terrestrial nature of the Daleks?" asks the Doctor. "I mean, examine this one. Or better still, ask your Scientific Advisor."

The Doctor leaves them with the Dalek.

"Well, Professor?" Gilmore asks Rachel.

"I'm afraid the Doctor's right. It is alien."

"You're positive?"

"Yes."

"Professor, a word. This Doctor, do you trust him?"

"Well, he knows what he's talking about, and considerably more than he's telling us. I think we should go along with him for now."

"And later?"

"We could ask him for an explanation."

"We could do a lot more than ask." He walks over to the Doctor. "Very well, Doctor, I'll have to get a decision about this evacuation from my superiors."

"Splendid."

"I should know either way by tomorrow morning. I'll see you all then."

Gilmore leaves.

"I shouldn't touch it if I were you," the Doctor warns as he sees the women lean close to look inside the Dalek. "It may not be completely dormant yet."

"That stench," gasps Allison, waving her hand before her face.

"Now, Doctor, I have questions I would like answered," says Rachel.

"So have I," says the Doctor. "I'll return in the morning."

"Doctor, where are you going?" asks Nita.

"To bury the past," the Doctor replies enigmatically.

"I'm coming with you," says Ace.

"It is not your past. You haven't been born yet," replies the Doctor. He turns to the women. "Would someone look after Nita and Ace for me?"

"Yes, of course," agrees Rachel.

The Doctor takes Ace's baseball bat. "I'll borrow this."

"Sergeant, have you room for Nita and Ace at your house?" asks Rachel.

"Yeah, sure," replies Mike. He turns to the girls. "Mum runs a boarding house. I'd like you to meet her."

"Ace?" says Rachel.

"Yes?"

"Not been born yet. What did he mean by that?"

Ace just smiles and winks at Nita.

The Doctor enters the café. The sign says open, but there are no lights on and no customers. A Jamaican man comes out from the kitchen. "Can I help you?"

"A mug of tea, please."

"Cold night tonight."

"Yes, it is. Bitter, very bitter. Where's Harry?"

"Visiting his missus. She's in hospital."

"Of course. It'll be twins."

"Hmm? Your tea. Sugar?"

"Ah. A decision. Would it make any difference?"

"It would make your tea sweet."

"Yes, but beyond the confines of my tastebuds, would it make any difference?"

"Not really."

"But…"

"Yeah?"

"What if I could control people's tastebuds? What if I decided that no one would take sugar? That'd make a difference to those who sell the sugar and those that cut the cane."

"My father, he was a cane cutter."

"Exactly. Now, if no one had used sugar, your father wouldn't have been a cane cutter."

"If this sugar thing had never started, my great-grandfather wouldn't have been kidnapped, chained up, and sold in Kingston in the first place. I'd be an African."

"See? Every great decision creates ripples, like a huge boulder dropped in a lake. The ripples merge, rebound off the banks in unforeseeable ways. The heavier the decision, the larger the waves, the more uncertain the consequences."

"Life's like that. Best thing is just to get on with it."

The little girl looks in the window at them, and leaves as the Doctor notices her.

"Did you see that?" the Doctor asks.

"See what?"

"Nothing. What would you do if you had a decision, a big decision?"

"How big?"

"Saving the world."

"Really?"

"Really."

"I wish you the best of luck."

"Let's hope I make the right decision. Things could get unpleasant round here. I'd take a holiday if I were you."

"Oh, sure. How long?"

"Two or three days. After that, it won't matter one way or the other. Thanks for the tea."

"Any time."

The Doctor puts a coin on the counter and leaves. John picks it up.

"Nineteen ninety one?"


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

Back at the school, a soldier armed with an ATR leaves the cellar just before the transmat starts up and delivers another cream and silver Dalek.

At a funeral parlour the next morning, the milkman leaves a pint at the front door. In the back a Welshman is screwing the brass fittings onto a coffin. Something crackles in a large casket of bizarre design nearby. He goes to it and gets a small static electric shock.

The Doctor walks in. "Good morning. I believe this belongs to you." The Doctor hands over the bottle of milk.  
"Yes."

"The door was open so I thought I'd just pop in and collect my casket."

"Ah, well, um the governor has yet to arrive and I'm afraid I can't just let you. Which er, casket would this be?"

The Doctor takes out Ace's baseball bat and indicates the strange one.

"Oh, I see. Er, well, if you could just wait until the governor arrives, I'm sure…"

"Yes, that would be perfectly all right."

"Oh, good. Splendid. Mister er…"

"Doctor."

"Doctor?"

"Yes. Now, if I might be alone with the…"

"Oh, yes, yes, of course. I'll leave you alone with, er…"

"Thank you."

"I'll just be in the next room if you…"

"Yes."

Martin leaves. The Doctor shuts the door behind him then returns to the casket.

"Hello. Open."

The casket lid tilts open to reveal dry ice swirling around inside.

In the funeral parlour office Martin is on the phone to his boss.

"Hello, governor? Somebody's come to collect that big casket. Yes. Yes, the Doctor. Just one thing, governor. I thought you said he was an old geezer with white hair."

"Now, let's see what you can make of this." The Doctor places the baseball bat on the dry ice and it slowly sinks.

In the boarding house. Mike is fully dressed when Ace and Nita enter in dressing gowns.

"Hello," Nita greets.

"Good morning," replies Mike.

"Where are you off to?" asks Ace.

"I have to check some things out at the Association," replies Mike.

"Who's the Association?" asks Nita.

"They're my friends," replies Mike. "You can meet them later."

Mike leaves. Ace picks up the newspaper - Daily Express with headline Rescue Bid Is On.

"Come on, now. Give it up." The baseball bat zooms up and the Doctor grabs it.

"Goodbye. Close."

The casket lid shuts.

"Follow me."

In the funeral parlour office, Martin is still on the phone.

"Yes, all right, governor."

"Thank you," the Doctor says on his way out.

"Oh, cheerio, Doctor. But Doctor, what about your…"

The casket glides past Martin, who faints.

Ratcliffe is in his office.

"Once we possess this Hand of Omega, what then?" he asks the Dalek computer.

"We shall be on the brink of great power."

"And our agreement?"

"You too shall share this power, if you have the stomach for it."

"What do you mean?"

"There will be casualties. Many deaths."

"War is hell."

At Willesden Lane Cemetery there is a funeral procession made up of the Doctor and a vicar using a white stick, with the casket bringing up the rear.

"It's very good of you to do this at such short notice," says the Doctor.

"Nonsense, my dear Doctor," the vicar replies. "The grave's been ready for a month. Mister Stevens, the gravedigger, was wondering what he should do."

"I had to leave suddenly," the Doctor explains, thinking about that day so many years ago when he showed off to Ian and Barbara, and didn't come back.

They turn off the path to an open grave. The casket positions itself over the hole in the ground.

"Forgive me for saying this, but it seems to me that your voice has changed somewhat since we last met," the vicar remarks. He is blind, so doesn't notice what else has changed.

"Yes, it has changed," the Doctor agrees. "Several times."

"I must say your pallbearers are very quiet. Silent as ghosts, really."

"Yes."

The Doctor removes his hat.

Ratcliffe is pacing his office when the telephone rings.

"Yes? Good. Stay with the Doctor. Watch him and call me back. Ah, ah, ah. Yours not to reason why, just to obey orders. Now just get on with it."

He puts the telephone down.

"My man has found it," he tells the Dalek computer.

"Yes, but my enemies have found your man."

Outside the cemetery, Mike comes out of a telephone box and walks past the Headmaster, who then gets an instruction via the chip in his head: " _He is an agent of the renegade Daleks. Apprehend and interrogate."_

"I obey."

The Headmaster follows Mike into the cemetery. He grabs Mike from behind.

"What is the location of the renegade Dalek base?" the Headmaster demands.

"What? Get off me or I'll break…"

"What is the location of the renegade Dalek base?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Renegade Daleks have defied the will of the Emperor Dalek. They must be located and destroyed. And you are an agent of the renegade Daleks."

"I work for Mister Ratcliffe. The Association."

Mike finally elbows the Headmaster in the stomach and frees himself.

"Who do you work for?" Mike demands.

The Headmaster stares into the sky, listening on his ear-piece.

" _Alert. Security is compromised. Terminate agent."_

"No!" The Headmaster objects.

"Who do you work for?" Mike asks him again.

The Headmaster collapses. Mike puts him down on an old work memorial stone below an angel monument and runs off.

Meanwhile, the casket is lowering itself into the grave.

"It is over," says the vicar.

"No. It's only just beginning," the Doctor contradicts, as he throws a handful of soil onto the casket then gently leads the blind vicar away, watched by Mike.

In the boarding house dining room, Mike's mum brings in a fresh pot of tea for her four lady guests.

"Thank you," says Allison.

"The Professor said he'd be back by now," Ace is beginning to worry.

"What was he doing, anyway?" asks Rachel.

"Working, unlike some people," the Doctor replies, entering with Mike. "Have a nice sleep?" he asks Ace and Nita.

"It was okay," Nita replies. "You're late."

"I found him wandering the streets," says Mike.

"I was not wandering the streets," objects the Doctor. "I was merely contemplating certain local cartographic anomalies."

"There's a message for you, Mike," says his mum, handing him a note.

"Thanks," replies Mike, reading the note. "Ladies and gentlemen, the Group Captain is expecting us."

"Great. Something to do at last," Nita says happily.

"Ah..." Mike replies nervously. "He specifically ordered that Ace and Nita remain here."

Mike screws up the note to stop Ace reading it. She looks at the Doctor with her eyebrows raised.

"Professor?"

The Doctor has picked up a copy of 'Doctor in the House'. "Ah, Ace, I have a present for you." He takes out her baseball bat and taps it against his hand. It sparks and he winces in pain.

"How did you do that?" asks Rachel.

"Higher technology, and no, I can't tell you how."

"Why not?"

"You're not ready for it. No one on this planet is."

"Ladies? Doctor?" says Mike, heading for the door.

"I'll meet you outside," the Doctor replies.

"Sorry, girls. Work to be done," says Mike. "Back at six. Have dinner ready."

Mike, Allison and Rachel leave.

"Toe rag," Ace sneers. "Professor, you can't leave us here."

"Ace, I'm trying to convince Group Captain Gilmore to keep his men out of trouble, otherwise there'll be a lot of needless deaths."

Mike keeps sounding the van's horn outside.

"You're up to something," says Nita, suspiciously.

"Yes," the Doctor admits.

"Then we have to come with you," says Ace.

"No."

"Who else is going to guard your back?" Nita objects.

"Will you obey me this once?" the Doctor begs. "I'll explain everything when I return."

"Tell us now!" Ace demands.

"I haven't got the time!"

"All right," Nita concedes, winking at Ace. "We'll stay here if that's what you want."

"Trust me."

"Doctor?" says Ace.

"Yes?"

"You'd better explain when you get back, or…"

"Or?"

Ace hefts her baseball bat. "Things could get nasty."

Mike and the women are in the van. They watch the Doctor go into the TARDIS.

"I wonder what he's up to?" says Mike.

"Who knows? His motives are alien," says Rachel.

"Meaning?" asks Mike.

"Meaning I don't think he's human."

"And Ace and Nita?"

"They're not aliens. You're all right there."

"Good. Well, I mean, I wouldn't want them to be foreign, would I?"

The Doctor leaves the TARDIS.

"Ah, here comes the Doctor," says Rachel.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

In Ratcliffe's office, a second high-tech wall panel is revealed. It shows a map of the local streets with various alien symbols on it.

"The enemy is about to start moving," says the computer.

"Do you think that Group Captain Gilmore suspects us?" asks Ratcliffe.

"Not the paltry military forces of your world. The real enemy. The Imperial Dalek faction, may their shells be blighted. Soon it will be war. Are you ready for war, Mister Ratcliffe?"

"Yes. This country fought for the wrong cause in the last war. When I spoke out, they had me imprisoned."

"You will be on the right side in this war."

The Doctor, Mike and the women enter the control room.

"Group Captain, the evacuation?" asks the Doctor.

"I've been in direct contact with High Command and they've agreed to stage a quiet withdrawal under the peace time nuclear accident provisions," Gilmore replies. "They felt that given the sensitive stage of the current government…"

"Just for a change," Allison cuts in sarcastically.

"They felt, Miss Williams," Gilmore continues, giving Allison a dirty look. "that the initial stages could be carried out under the aegis of the Counter-Intrusion Measures, United Kingdom. The D-notice office has of course been informed and a cover story prepared."

"What is it?" asks Rachel.

"I have no idea. Not my department," replies Gilmore. "Now, Doctor, since you hold my career in your hands, I trust you can justify my faith."

"With respect, Group Captain, your career's magnificently irrelevant. Now, let's see. Any more transmission sites?"

"No, just at the school," Rachel replies.

"Good. I want a direct line to Jodrell Bank. Let's see. 1963. The Fylingdale installations and the Royal Observatory. Order them to search these localities for any signs of high orbital activity."

Mike gives the Doctor a pencil to write them down. The Doctor hands the note to him and keeps the pencil, then switches on the light above a pool table covered in maps.

"Now, I want the detector vans moved so they can cover this area here and here," says the Doctor, pointing to locations on the map. "Order all air and ground forces to avoid engaging the enemy at all costs. We must act with extreme caution."

"And if we don't?" asks Allison.

"Goodbye civilisation as you know it."

In the boarding house front room, Mrs Smith is doing some ironing while Ace plaits her hair. Nita is completely bored now and decides to turn on the small TV set in the corner. It eventually warms up and shows the Test Card while playing music. Mrs Smith leaves the room. Ace finds the notice in the window that says - No Coloureds. She takes it down, and holds it up to show Nita, who frowns and shakes her head.

"I'm sick of the Doctor treating us like airheads!" Nita complains. "I want to do something useful."

"I left my blaster at the school," says Ace. She calls through the doorway: "Mrs Smith?"

"Yes?" Mrs Smith calls from the other room.

"We're just going out for a breath of fresh air."

"All right, dear."

The television has warmed up, and the announcer says: "This is BBC television. The time is a quarter past five and Saturday viewing continues with an adventure in the new science fiction series, Doc…"

But the girls have already left the room.

In the control room, the teleprinter is chattering away. The Doctor tears off the paper to read it.

"Twenty six by zero zero one. A big mothership of some kind, with maybe as many as four hundred Daleks on board. Well, at least we know where it is."

"Much good that does us," says Rachel.

"It would be foolish of me, I suppose, to hope that this mothership was not nuclear capable?" says Gilmore.

"That ship has weapons capable of cracking open this planet like an egg."

"We've got the parts you wanted, Doctor," says Allison, coming into the room with Mike. "Where do you want them?"

"Good. Over here."

The Doctor clears the maps from the pool table, and Allison and Mike deposit their armfuls of bits and pieces.

"Allison, we've located the mothership," Rachel informs the newcomers. "It's in a powered geostationary orbit "

"Where?" asks Mike.

"Guess," says Rachel.

Mike looks up at the ceiling.

"Right."

"Is that their main base, Doctor?" asks Gilmore.

"For one group, at least. I believe we're dealing with two antagonistic Dalek factions."

"Two?" asks Rachel.

"And do they both come from outer space?" asks Rachel.

"From another planet in a distant future. We must try and contain them, let them destroy each other."

"Shouldn't we send for reinforcements? Armoured units?" asks Gilmore.

"Have you been listening to me, Group Captain? That spaceship up there has surveillance equipment capable of spotting a sparrow fall at fifteen thousand kilometres. Any sign of a military build-up and they may simply decide to sterilise the area."

"And we have no defence," says Gilmore.

"Frightening, isn't it, to find there are others better versed in death than human beings."

Ace and Nita have returned to the school. They are walking down a corridor.

"Hello?" calls Nita.

"Anyone at home?" calls Ace.

They give the fallen Dalek a look over then go up the stairs.

Down in the cellar, a fourth Dalek is transmatting in.

The girls enter the science lab. Ace turns on her ghetto blaster, but it's not the station she expects to receive. "Attack squad in position."

"Lower area clear," says a second Dalek.

"Proceed. Exterminate any aliens."

"We obey."

Ace takes her baseball bat from her rucksack and turns her player from radio to tape. She and Nita go out to the stairwell to see a cream and gold Dalek on its way up. They run and it fires.

At the control room, the Doctor has built a gizmo with what looks like an infrared light on the end.

"What does it do?" asks Rachel.

"Well, at best it will interfere with the Dalek's control systems. I rigged something like it on Spiridon," replies the Doctor, remembering the planet he visited when he was in his third body. The planet was used for a base by the Daleks in the early 26th century in their plan to destabilise the galactic balance of power before an invasion in force. The Doctor and the Thals used explosives to trigger an icecano eruption, burying the army of ten thousand Daleks in molten ice and (they believed) permanent deep freeze. The Dalek Supreme was stranded on Spiridon after the base was destroyed and its ship stolen by the departing Thals.

"And the worst?" asks Rachel, bringing him back to the present.

"It'll do absolutely nothing."

"Doctor? Red Nine reports an increase in modulated signaling," says Allison.

"Where?"

"Just a minute."

"Mike, phone up Ace and Nita and tell them someone will come and collect them," the Doctor requests.

"Right," replies Mike.

"The signal emanates from Coal Hill School. Multiple sources in close proximity," says Allison.

"Multiple? They've got the transmat working again."

"Transmat? What does that mean?" asks Rachel.

"More Daleks."

Gilmore bursts in. "Doctor, there's no reply from my men at the school."

"Get a vehicle ready. Load it up with plastic explosives and integral detonators."

"Right." Gilmore leaves.

"Why explosives?" asks Rachel.

"Well, that thing merely disorients and weakens them. What do you expect me to do then, talk to them sternly?"

"Doctor, Mum says that Ace and Nita left ages ago," says Mike.

In the school science lab, the Dalek has glided slowly to the top of the stairs. Ace and Nita hide behind the doors as it enters and blasts Ace's noisy tape player to pieces and reports in.

"Two small human females sighted on level three."

"Who are you calling small?" cries Ace, jumping up from her hiding place. She starts hitting it with her souped up baseball bat.

"Under attack. Under attack."

She knocks off its eyepiece then dives under the benches.

"Vision impaired."

It starts firing wildly.

"Reinforcements requested!"

Ace and Nita leap through a window into the corridor. A second Dalek has come up the stairs. It fires and misses so Ace gives it a clout before running down the stairs with Nita. They run down the corridor. By the entrance is a dead soldier. Nita takes his rifle and she and Ace run out the door.

"Human female is now leaving building," says the Dalek.

Outside, Ace and Nita are trapped between two Daleks in a large empty area opening onto the playground.

"Stay where you are. Do not move," says one of the Daleks.

"Exterminate. Exterminate!" shouts the other Dalek.

A third Dalek appears. "Exterminate!" it shouts.

Ace and Nita get down on their knees as the Daleks close in on them. Ace takes the anti-tank rocket and launcher out of her rucksack and prepares to fire.

"Exterminate. Exterminate. Exterminate."


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N I've decided this story need filling out more. I'm working on this from now on. As an Aspie, I've always found it difficult to express myself in words. I'll probably go back to earlier chapters and flesh them out eventually.**

Chapter Six

The Doctor runs into the school with his gizmo, followed by Mike and some soldiers.

"Exterminate. Exterminate."

The turns on the gizmo and it works. Nita watched sparks flying everywhere and she sighed in relief. She'd thought she was going to die there without her family even knowing where she was. But part of her had known that the Doctor would save her. He always did.

The Daleks start groaning.

"You, move in," Mike orders.

Mike and two soldiers stick some explosives on the Daleks and pull the pins on the detonators, as Ace and Nita get out from in between.

"Fall back. Fall back!" cries Mike.

Mike and the soldiers run outside.

"It works. It works!" cries the Doctor, excitedly.

"Fall back! Three, two, one, down!" orders Mike.

The three Daleks get their heads blown off. Gilmore, Rachel and Allison join the men as they reenter.

"There were living beings in there," says the Doctor.

"Not any more," says Mike.

"Come on, Sergeant," says Gilmore. "We'll search upstairs."

"Yes, sir," says Mike. "Doctor, may I?"

"Yes, Sergeant," agrees the Doctor.

The Doctor hands over his gizmo.

"Right," says Gilmore.

"Stay sharp. Follow me," Mike orders.

The military head out, leaving the scientists behind.

"Doctor?" Rachel turns to him.

"Hmm?"

"This one's still active."

"Oh? Let's see, Professor."

A claw comes up from the third Dalek casing and grabs the Doctor round the throat. The Doctor's face screws up in pain. Nita grabs Ace's abandoned baseball bat and starts hitting it. Finally it lets him go, and she keeps on hitting the squealing thing until it shuts up, and beyond. The Doctor is coughing violently into his red paisley handkerchief.

"Nita, it's dead," says the Doctor, gruffly. He places his hands on her arms, stilling them. He looks at her intently. "Thank you."

"What was that?" asks Rachel.

"They've mutated again," says the Doctor, looking into the casing and waving away smoke. "Here, come and have a look." Rachel comes up close to the Dalek and looks inside. Nita looks on from a distance, feeling disgusted by what she sees.

"Compare that to the destroyed Dalek at Totter's Lane," continues the Doctor. "Note the difference."

"The other Dalek was underdeveloped, with vestigial limbs and sensory organs almost amoeboid. Allison, look. This is altogether different." Allison comes over to look.

"It has functional appendages and some kind of mechanical prosthesis grafted into its very body," continues Rachel. She screws up her face and turns away. "I think I'm going to be sick."

There is an explosion outside.

"Sergeant Smith must have found some more Daleks," the Doctor remarks.

Ace is still lying on the ground. "Don't anyone give me a hand."

"Ace, you're hurt," cries Nita, walking over to her and crouching down next to her.

"I had an argument with a window."

"You two go down and check the cellar, but don't touch anything," the Doctor tells Allison and Rachel. "I'll look after Ace." He leans down, placing his hand on Ace's shoulder.

Rachel and Allison leave. The Doctor crouches down next to Ace, placing his umbrella on the ground. He begins checking Ace's leg.

"When I say stay put, I mean stay put, not take on an entire Dalek assault squad single-handed," The Doctor grumps at Ace and Nita. "What were you doing here, anyway?"

"We came to get my tape deck," Ace explains.

"Where is it?" asks the Doctor.

"It's in little bits," moans Ace.

"Good," says the Doctor.

"Good?" Ace exclaims, and then grimaces as the Doctor lifts her leg and bends her knee sharply. "Ow! What do you mean, good. Where am I going to get another one?"

The Doctor crosses his arms. "That tape deck was a dangerous anachronism. If someone had found it and discovered the principles of its function, the whole microchip revolution would take place now, twenty years too early, with incalculable damage to the time line."

"So?"

"So? Ace, the Daleks have a mothership up there," says the Doctor, pointing at the sky. "Capable of eradicating this planet from space, but even they, ruthless though they are, would think twice before making such a radical alteration to the time line."

The Doctor checks Ace's leg then tweaks her ear. "There, you ought to be able to get up and walk about now."

"Cheers, Professor."

On the Dalek Mothership:

"Bridge reporting. Mothership will maintain Earth geostationary orbit. All systems fully operational. Attack squad Delta prepare to enter transmat."

Allison and Rachel are in the School cellar.

"The subject obviously is placed on that dais," says Allison, looking at the transmat. "Then what?"

"The Doctor called it a transmat," Rachel replies. "What's that imply to you?"

"Matter transmission? But that's impossible."

"Impossible. You know, after this is over I'm going to retire and raise begonias."

"Lovely flowers, begonias," remarks the Doctor, coming down the steps with Ace's baseball bat over one shoulder and his umbrella over the other.

"Doctor, how exactly does this thing work?" asks Allison.

"Don't bother," says Rachel.

"It's a link for the Daleks, allowing them to beam death squads onto Earth without anybody knowing," the Doctor explains, handing Allison his umbrella. "And I don't want them here just yet."

The Doctor sets about the transmat with the baseball bat, sparks flying everywhere. Rachel hides her face in Allison's shoulder, while Allison flinches. Eventually the baseball bat breaks in half. He looks at it. "Weapons. Always useless in the end." He tosses the bat into the now broken transmat and wipes his hands together. He turns to the women, whose jaws had dropped in astonishment, wiping his face with his handkerchief. "Oh, you look hungry. How about lunch?" He closes the women's mouths for them.

At the cemetery, Ratcliffe marches up to the new grave, which now sports a lovely black marble headstone by A Tomes of Acton, with a lower case Omega in gold.

Everyone is at the café. Lollipop is playing on the jukebox as the whole party is eating. The Doctor and the girls are sitting at their own table. The Doctor has his elbows on the table, his hands clasped together with his chin resting on them. Ace and Nita are watching him.

"Professor, what are you doing?"

"Concentrating."

Ace rolls her eyes and sighs, placing her elbow on the table and resting her chin in her palm.

Nita gets up and walks over to the counter, where Harry is rushing around. "Harry, I wanted some toast," she reminds him quietly. She knows Harry is very busy but she is hungry!

"Coming, coming!"

Nita sits back down with the Doctor.

Ace gets up and goes to Rachel and Allison's table. "May I?" Ace asks, indicating a spare chair. They nod and Ace takes the chair and joins Mike and his friends at their table.

"Hello, Ace," says Mike.

"Hi," Ace replies as she sits down.

"You've met Paul, John."

"Hello," says Ace.

Nita is watching the Doctor. She wonders what is going on in that big brain of his.

At the cemetery, Ratcliffe takes a metal bar from a nearby grave and inserts it into the Omega grave. When it reaches the casket he gets an electric shock that throws him back. "Argh!"

On the Dalek Mothership:

"Power source detected. Alert! Power source detected. Full alert!"

Two more cream and gold Daleks enter.

"It is the Hand of Omega."

"Inform the Emperor Dalek."

"I obey."

Everyone is still at the Café. Ace is smiling, enjoying the attention of the soldiers. The Doctor is still staring moodily at nothing. Nita is eating her toast, wishing the Doctor would open up to her.

"I just feel we should be doing something," says Gilmore, who is now sitting with Allison and Rachel.

Rachel puts down her coffee. "Frankly, I wouldn't advise it, Group Captain." She wipes her mouth with a napkin. "We're in way over our heads."

"You were hired as a Chief Scientific Advisor. One tends to expect advice from one's advisors," Gilmore replies.

Rachel stares at him in disbelief. She crosses her arms on the table and leans on them. "For one thing, Group Captain, I was not hired, I was drafted. And for another, do you think I am enjoying having some space vagrant come along and tell me that the painstaking research I've devoted my life to has been superceded by a bunch of tin plated pepperpots?"

"Steady on," Gilmore attempts to calm Rachel.

She sits up straight and bangs her hand on the table for emphasis. "Steady on? You drag me down from Cambridge, you quote the Peace Time Emergency Powers Act at me, and then you expect me to advise on something outside the realm of human experience. Bluntly, Group Captain, we're reliant on the Doctor because only the Doctor knows what is going on."

The Doctor overheard her and raised his eyebrows at Nita.

At the cemetery, the little schoolgirl skips up to Ratcliffe's lorry, parked by the grave. His men are exhuming the casket.

"Get on with it," Ratcliffe orders the men. "I want that coffin back at the warehouse."

"Guv."

Ratcliffe goes over to the girl. "What are you staring at?"

She looks at the grave, then up at the sky.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

On the Mothership:

"Emperor on the bridge."

A giant headed Dalek with no eyepiece, sink plunger or weapon rolls up.

"Report," the Emperor demands.

"The transmat is no longer operational."

"We have established the position of the Omega device."

"Prepare the assault shuttle," orders the Emperor.

"Renegade Dalek agents are in the area."

"They will surrender the Hand of Omega," the Emperor predicts.

At the Cemetery:

"Haven't you got a home to go to?" Ratcliffe asks the little girl. He turns to his men. "Come on, lads, put your backs into it. We haven't got all day."

When he looks back, the girl has vanished.

At the café, Gilmore is at the counter. The Doctor finally emerges from his reverie, much to Nita's relief.

"Group Captain," he called. Gilmore stepped over to the Doctor's table. "We need to establish a forward base at the school. Can it be done?"

"Of course," replies Gilmore.

"Thank you for your cooperation."

"Only a fool argues with his doctor." Gilmore turns to Mike. "Sergeant!"

"Sir?" Mike stands up.

"Get Embery. Set up a command unit. Forward command on the third floor, defensive positions on the ground floor and the roof. Get a move on."

"Yes, sir". Mike addresses his men. "All right, men, fall out. Follow me back to the school."

"Professor Jensen, Miss Williams, follow me," orders Gilmore.

"Jawohl!" exclaims Allison in disbelief. She stands up. "Coming, Professor Jensen?"

"Of course, Miss Williams."

"I wish Bernard was here," says Allison, thinking of Professor Bernard Quatermass, a pioneer of the British space programme, heading the British Experimental Rocket Group. He continually finds himself confronting sinister alien forces that threaten to destroy humanity.

"The British Rocket Group's got its own problems," Rachel replies.

"Harry, toast," calls Ace, getting to her feet.

"Coming, coming," replies Harry.

Just the Doctor, Nita and Ace are left in the cafe now. Ace sits back down with the Doctor and Nita.

"What's so important about the school?" asks Nita.

"Well, now that I've disabled the transmat, absolutely nothing. As long as the renegade Daleks have got the Hand of Omega, then the Imperial Daleks' attention will be focused on that."

"So there _are_ two sets of Daleks," Ace realizes.

"Yes."

At Ratcliffe's office, Ratcliffe and his men drive into the yard with the casket on the back of the lorry. Ratcliffe goes to his office.

"We have the Hand of Omega. It's out in the yard," announces Ratcliffe.

"Excellent," replies the computer.

"Good. I'll tell my man. After all, he found it."

Allison meets Mike in the school corridor.

"Mike? There's a phone call for you in the Headmaster's office."

"Thanks."

The Doctor and the girls are out in the school yard.

"Professor?"

"Yes?"

"If this place is so out of the way of the action, what are we doing here?"

"Keeping an eye on Group Captain Chunky Gilmore. Although why his men call him Chunky, I've no idea." He said that because Gilmore is tall and thin.

They walk past a machine gun emplacement being built out of sandbags. They enter the school corridor.

"They're really going for it," Nita remarks.

"That's the general idea. I want to keep the military fully occupied and out of the way."

"Out of the way of what?" Ace asks, realizing he's keeping them in the dark again. "Oh, Professor, you promised us, remember?"

They start up the stairs.

"A long time ago, on my home planet of Gallifrey, there lived a stellar engineer called Omega."

"Stellar? As in stars? You mean he engineered stars?" asks Nita.

"Nita!"

"Sorry. Go on."

The Doctor places his hand on Nita's shoulder and indicated that she and Ace should sit down on the steps. He bent over, leaning on his umbrella. "It was Omega who created the supernova that was the initial power source for Gallifreyan time travel experiments. He left behind him the basis on which Rassilon founded Time Lord society, and he left behind the Hand of Omega."

Ace and Nita are listening intently. "His hand? What good was that?" Ace asks.

"No, no, not his hand literally. No, no, it's called that because Time Lords have an infinite capacity for pretension." He sits down next to Nita.

"I've noticed that," Nita remarks.

The Doctor gives her a look. He places his hands on his umbrella handle and rests his chin. "The Hand of Omega is a mythical name for Omega's remote stellar manipulator, a device used to customise stars with. And didn't we have trouble with the prototype."

"We?" Ace asks.

"They!" the Doctor quickly corrects himself.

"And the Daleks want it so they can recreate the time travel experiments?" asks Nita.

A soldier comes running up the steps and the girls and the Doctor has to lean to the side to let him through.

"But you said that both Dalek factions can already travel in time," Nita says.

"Oh yes, Daleks have got time corridor technology, but it's very crude and nasty. What they want is the power that Time Lords have, and they'll get that with the Hand of Omega, or so they think."

"And you have to try and stop them," Ace says.

"No, Ace, I want them to have it."

"Eh?" asks Nita. Now she is really confused. As much as she loves travelling with the Doctor, sometimes she really doesn't understand him.

"My problem is trying to stop Group Captain Gilmore and his men getting diced in the crossfire."

"So, all this is…" Ace begins.

"A massive deception, yes."

"Oh, well devious!" Ace cries. "So the Daleks grab the Hand of Omega and go, and no one gets hurt. Brilliant."

"Just one thing."

"What?" asks Nita.

"I didn't expect two Dalek factions, and now I've got to make sure the wrong ones don't get their grubby little protuberances on it." He stands up. The girls follow his example.

"Shouldn't we take Mike?" Ace asks.

"No. Dalek hunting is a terminal pastime."

"So what are we doing?" asks Nita.

"Dalek hunting." He walks away and the girls look at each other worriedly.

At Ratcliffe's yard, a black Dalek watches Ratcliffe's men take the casket off the lorry and inside.

"Advance!" commands the Black dalek.

Grey Daleks follow it. The three daleks approach Ratcliffe's men. As the men turn and notice the daleks, the Black dalek commands them: "Stay where you are."

.

Ratcliffe is sitting in his office. "It's been a long and difficult struggle for myself and my men. Now we can afford to relax and reap the rewards." He stands up. "As I said, people need a firm hand. It's in their nature. They feel more comfortable with a strong leader, someone who knows when to be lenient and when to be harsh."

He hears Dalek weapon fire outside. Ratcliffe rushes out to see his men being shot, then runs back in.

"What have you done to those men? They were on our side!"

"You are a slave, Ratcliffe," replies the computer.

The controller turns round and removes its helmet. It is the little girl! "You were born to serve the Daleks."

Ratcliffe's jaw hits the floor.

A door slides open and the Black Dalek enters the warehouse with the grey daleks following. "Patrol the area until the time controller is operational."

"We obey," reply the grey daleks, turning to leave.

Black enters Ratcliffe's office and Ratcliffe is terrified. "You will obey the Daleks or you will be exterminated. Activate the time controller."

The girl goes to Ratcliffe's desk and opens the bottom drawer. It contains a large globe on a base. She runs her hands over the globe, generating electricity inside it.

"Time controller activated. Calculating coordinates," says the girl.

"You will come with us," Black commands. Black leaves the office, followed by Ratcliffe and the girl.

Outside Ratcliffe's yard, the grey Daleks trundle down the street as the Doctor, Nita and Ace hide behind a parked car.

"This way," beckons the Doctor, running down the street. The girls follow. They dash through a door as another grey Dalek comes out and heads off. The Doctor peeks out as the Dalek goes past. Nita opens the door wider and pokes her head out.

"The main staging area must be in that warehouse." The Doctor gestured towards Ratcliffe's warehouse.

"Are we going to have a look?" asks Nita.

"Might as well." The Doctor took off towards the warehouse. The girls followed, Ace shutting the door behind her.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

Mike comes around the corner in the School corridor with his men behind him and meets Rachel, Allison and Gilmore, who are working at a desk.

"I've checked the whole building, sir. There's no sign of Ace or Nita or the Doctor."

"Right, deploy lookouts, take a squad and sweep the area. I want the Doctor found and brought back here."

"Yes, sir." Mike turns to the men standing behind him. "Okay, men, follow me."

Gilmore turns to Rachel and Allison "You two, follow me."

Rachel and Allison snap to attention and obey.

At Ratcliffe's yard, the Doctor, Nita and Ace sneak around the back of the green lorry and he checks the fallen men.

"Daleks."

The casket mutters on its pallet. He goes to soothe it. "Be quiet."

"Is that it?" asks Nita.

"The Hand of Omega's inside this box. The most powerful and sophisticated remote stellar control manipulator device ever constructed."

"Are you sure you want the Daleks to have it?" Ace asks.

"Absolutely." He walks around the casket. "You know what you've got to do, don't you?"

The Hand chirps its reply.

"Yes, of course you do."

"Is it alive?" asks Nita.

"In a manner of speaking, yes." He pats the casket, smiling.

He steps away and Nita puts her ear to the casket and hears it chirping.

They creep into Ratcliffe's office. The Dalek chair is unoccupied.

Ace runs over to it. "What is it?"

"Some kind of biomechanoid control system, for a small human. Of course, it's a battle computer!"

"But why would a human need to sit in it?" asks Nita.

Ace sits in the seat and the Doctor pulls her out. He leans on her shoulder.

"The Dalek's major drawback is their dependency on rationality and logic. The solution? Get a human, preferably young, imaginative, plug the child into the system, and their ingenuity and creativity are slaved to the battle computer."

"That's well boggling," says Ace.

"It's obscene." He removes his hands and glances at the machine. He turns his head and notices the glowing energy ball, pointing to it. "Ah, now for the time controller." Ace and Nita look to where he is pointing.

"Hey, is this it?" Ace asks, running over to the electrostatic globe, and being her impulsive self, lays her hands on it. The Doctor slaps her hands off it with his hat.

"What is it?" asks Nita.

The Doctor crouches and places his hands upon it. "It's a device the renegade Daleks use to travel through time. They've come a long way." He presses on it and the globe switches off.

"Have you busted it?" Ace asks.

"No, no, no, I don't want to lumber Earth with a load of desperate Daleks." He stands. "I've merely put it out of phase. They'll be able to fix it, but it'll slow them down."

The Doctor stretches out his arm and magically produces a calling card, which he puts onto the time controller. He blows it a kiss. They hear voices outside.

"What are you going to do to me?" asks Ratcliffe, sounding terrified.

"Remain silent!" commanded the Black Dalek.

The Doctor grabs his umbrella off the table and they run out of the office and hide behind a rack in the store room. The girl leads Ratcliffe with his hands raised and the Black Dalek into the office.

The girls walks over to the time controller. "The time controller has been disabled!" she cries, rubbing her hands over it.

"Instruct all Daleks to seek and destroy the intruder!" Black commands.

The girl holds up the Doctor's calling card - Gallifreyan characters, a black seal and a gold question mark.

"Exterminate the Doctor! Crush all resistance!" Black screams.

"I obey," says the girl, throwing the card down on the desk.

She goes to the battle computer, sits in the seat and pulls the helmet down over her head.

The Doctor, Nita and Ace make their escape from the yard and run round the corner. The Doctor pulls the girls to hide behind a workman's hut as a grey Dalek trundles past. After it passes the Doctor creeps around it and pokes his head around the corner. Nita pulls him back protectively.

"Why didn't you just run off with the Hand of Omega and give it to the other Daleks?" asks Nita.

"With a bit of luck, the Imperial Daleks will wipe out the renegade faction. Besides, I can't just roll up and give it to them. They'd get suspicious."

"Suspicious of what?" Ace asks. "You still haven't told me w…"

The Doctor sees the Dalek returning. He places his hand over Aces mouth. "Shush!"

The Dalek returns so the Doctor pulls the girls inside the canvas hut. He has his arms around the girls' shoulders. The Doctor stifles a sneeze as it circles, then he pokes his head out and sees that the Dalek has gone. He grabs Nita's hand and they all run off in the direction of the Kings Arms.

Mike and his men come out the Coal Hill School gate.

"All right, follow me and keep your eyes peeled for Ace and the Doctor. Move." They run off.

The Doctor, Nita and Ace come running down the street, passing the TARDIS. Ace stops in front of it. "Hey, Doctor!"

"Yes?" He runs back with Nita.

"Couldn't we just get in?"

"No, no, no, we've got work to do. Anyway, here come the military." He walks up to Mike and his men.

"Where've you been?" asks Mike.

"Dalek hunting," replies the Doctor. "Now it's the other way around. Is Gilmore back at the school?"

"Yes."

"Good. We'll go back and smooth his troubled brow." He heads toward the school with Nita.

Mike stops Ace from following them. "Ace, when we're finished with this lot, do you fancy going to the pictures?"

"You're confident," Ace remarks. "Why, what's on?"

"I don't know."

"Doesn't matter. I've probably seen it on television anyway."

"Huh?" Mike sees movement over her shoulder. "Daleks! Move it!" They run off towards the school.

The daleks are trundling past the TARDIS. The soldiers, Mike and Ace make it back into the school yard just before the grey Dalek opens fire.

Inside, Gilmore is walking down the stairs as the Doctor and Nita stagger in, breathless. Gilmore receives a report from a solier. "Well, Doctor, I trust your little jaunt was successful."

"Moderately so." Ace comes running through the door. "I'm afraid we've brought back some Daleks with us."

Mike runs in, followed by his soldiers. "I don't get it. They've got the Hand of Omega. Why don't they just leave?"

The Doctor and the girls turn to look at him. "How did you know that, Sergeant?" asks the Doctor.

Mike pauses, looking worried. "Ace told me."

"You toe rag," Ace says angrily, slowly walking towards him. "You lying dirty scumbag."

She looks like she's about to punch him so the Doctor grabs her arms from behind. "It can wait."

Ace continues. "You're finished," The Doctor starts pulling her away towards the staircase. "He's a grass, a dirty stinking grass! He's selling us out to the Daleks!"

The Doctor drags Ace up the stairs and Nita follows after giving Mike a filthy look.

Gilmore walks over to Mike. "What's going on, Sergeant? What are they talking about?"

"I didn't know it was the Daleks, sir."

Mike is escorted away.

Outside, the machine gun nest is under attack. It doesn't last long.

In Ratcliffe's office, the little girl is still plugged into the battle computer. She sees movement on the screen. "Imperial Dalek shuttlecraft entering atmosphere."

"We must defend the Hand of Omega. Withdraw all units," Black commands. "Return to base immediately."

"I obey."

Ratcliffe is still standing with his hands raised.

In the school yard, the grey daleks hear their commands. "Battle computer to all units. Withdraw immediately."

"Return to base," one grey dalek orders the others. They turn around and head back towards their base.

In the School science lab, Ace and Nita are watching from the lab window.

"They're retreating, all of them," Nita says. "Wimps!" she yells at them.

Rachel enters with a piece of paper in her hand and walks over to the Doctor.

"Doctor, we've had a report of a radar contact."

"On a re-entry curve from low orbit?"

"Yes."

"That'll be the Imperial Dalek shuttlecraft." The Doctor nods.

"What? They're not landing a spaceship here," Gilmore says.

"Here? No. We're much too far from the main action."

There is the sound of landing jets outside. Rachel and Allison look up at the sky. Gilmore and the Doctor look towards the window.

"You're sure?"

"Cor!" Ace exclaims, looking out the window. She sees a shuttle craft coming down to land.

"Girls! Get away from the window!" cries the Doctor.

They turn and jump over the desks to the Doctor. Everything starts to shake as the shuttle craft lands.

"Down!" shouts the Doctor and everyone ducks down. As the shuttlecraft descends onto the schoolyard, the windows shatter. The Doctor looks up at Nita. "I think I might have miscalculated."


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

In the school playground, the shuttlecraft has planted itself neatly on the existing scorch marks. A hatch opens and a cream and gold Dalek leads its companions out.

"Advance. We must capture the Hand of Omega from renegade Dalek faction. Proceed to area two five zero six immediately."

In the science lab, everyone starts to get up, coughing from the dust. Rachel holds her ears, as she feels a bit deaf from the noise of the shuttlecraft landing.

"Right, out of here. Everybody downstairs," Gilmore orders.

Rachel, Allison, Nita and Ace leave. Gilmore joins the Doctor at the shattered window. They look at the shuttlecraft.

"Is that the mothership?"

"No, that's a shuttle. The mothership's much larger." The Doctor turns to Gilmore. "Are you willing to cooperate with me now?"

"Do I have a choice?"

"Well, you could go down there and make a gloriously futile gesture, yes."

"What do we do?"

"A little bit of piracy," the Doctor smirks.

Gilmore moves away from him.

In the corridor, Rachel, Allison, Ace and Nita come down the stairs, brushing themselves off.

"Ace!" calls mike. She stops and looks at him, as the others keep walking.

"Go away."

"Ace, I didn't know it was the Daleks," Mike says, walking over to her. "I was just doing Mister Ratcliffe a favour."

"Do me a favour and drown yourself."

"I thought it was the right thing." Mike puts his hands on Ace's shoulders. "Mister Ratcliffe had such great plans."

Ace shrugs his hands off and turns away.

"Ace, I never really wanted to hurt anybody. It's just you have to protect your own, keep the outsiders out just that your own people can have a fair chance."

Ace turns back to him and shoves him away. "I said shut up! You've betrayed the Doctor, you betrayed me. I trusted you. I even liked you, and all the time you..." She turns and runs off.

Gilmore comes down the stairs with a Sergeant.

"Sergeant Smith."

"Sir," Mike says halfheartedly, still reeling from Ace's rejection.

"Attention!" Gilmore reminds him.

Mike stands to attention.

"I'm placing you under close arrest under suspicion of offences contrary to the Official Secrets Act."

"Yes, sir."

Two renegade daleks are moving down the street. The Imperial Daleks are coming around the corner from the opposite direction. "Scout seven reporting area two five zero nine clear."

The Imperial Daleks get ambushed by the renegades. They are all lousy shots, but eventually an Imperial gets destroyed.

"Retreat! Squad Delta under attack from renegade Daleks. Retreat!"

On the mothership:

"Mothership bridge to shuttle force controller," reports a Dalek. "Receiving your signal."

"We must recover the Hand of Omega without delay!" commands the emperor.

"Shuttle force has encountered heavy resistance from renegade Daleks."

"Order Special Weapons Dalek into position!"

An even more heavily armoured Dalek with no vulnerable eyepiece and one big gun rolls down the road. It obliterates a grey Dalek with its first shot.

The Doctor is hanging out of the window of the school science lab. He uses a rope to lasso one of the shuttle's antenna. Ace, Nita, Allison, Rachel and Gilmore are inside the window helping.

"Why are we doing this?" asks Allison, looking up at the Doctor.

Gilmore ties the end off.

The Doctor looks down at Allison. "Elementary piracy, my dear Allison. Dalek shuttles have massive ground defences and an unguarded service hatch on top." He looks at the others. "Now once I'm down there, I'll attempt to open that hatch. Nita and Ace, you come after, then Gilmore, followed by Allison and Rachel. Any questions? No? Good."

The Doctor uses his umbrella to slide down the rope to the top of the shuttle. Everyone watches from the window. Nita wonders at his agility. He kicks in the hatch and jumps inside. The pilot Dalek is physically fastened to the controls through connections where its plunger and weapon ought to be.

"Emergency! Emergency! Unable to disengage from control position."

The Doctor pulls out the bottom hatch and grabs some fibre optic cables from the control panel.

"Humans on the bridge."

The Doctor puts his hat over its eyepiece.

"I'm not human."

"You are the Doctor."

"Yes."

"You are the enemy of the Daleks."

"Correct."

"You must be exterminate…"

The Dalek is switched off by the Doctor's work on the fibre optic cables. The Doctor retrieves his hat, places it on his head and picks up his umbrella, using it to push on a red panel, which closes the access hatch in the floor.

"Goodbye."

He goes to the open hatch and calls out. "You can come down now!"

In the school cellar Mike is sitting at a table with a corporal who is guarding him. The corporal throws the book he's been reading on the table and stands up.

"Tea?"

"Yeah."

The Corporal walks around a corner behind Mike. Mike leans back in his chair and watches him. He gets up and follows him. He sees the corporal making tea. The corporal sees him and turns around.

"Come on, Sarge" he pleads.

Mike attacks his guard and escapes with his weapon.

Everyone is on board the Imperial shuttlecraft. Gilmore, Ace and Nita are watching the Doctor work on the inactive Dalek. Allison and Rachel are looking around the ship.

"What did you do to it?" asks Nita.

"I shorted it out. Daleks are such boring conversationalists."

The Doctor retrieves the Dalek's plunger from its storage box at its back.

"It's very functional," Rachel says, referring to the ship. Gilmore, Ace and Nita look around.

"Yes, they're not known for their aesthetic sense. Let's see what they were up to."

He uses the plunger to operate some controls. A star map lights up.

"Ah, the planet Skaro. So, the Daleks are returning to their ancestral seat. I think we've seen enough. Time to leave. Er, get off the grill."

Everyone steps off it and he opens the floor hatch.

"We'll go back through the playground."

"What about the massive ground defences?" Allison objects.

"Oh, I've turned those off. Come on, jump."

Allison jumps, and the others follow, one by one.

Mike runs into Ratcliffe's yard. The gates swing closed behind him to reveal two renegade Daleks.

"Exterminate!"

"Exterminate!"

Mike turns to face them and raises his hands. "No, no, don't. Look, I have a message for Ratcliffe. Understand? A message for Mister Ratcliffe."

"You are my prisoner. You will obey all instructions or you will be exterminated!"

"You said it, mate."

The Daleks back him into Ratcliffe's office.

The main hatch of the Dalek shuttlecraft opens. Allison, Rachel, Gilmore, Ace, Nita and the Doctor exit the shuttlecraft. The hatch shuts on the Doctor's umbrella and he struggles to free it.

"I rigged the communications relay to the shuttle control system," says the Doctor, still pulling on his umbrella. "We can monitor the Daleks on the transmat in the cellar."

"You can't do that. You mashed up the transmat, remember?" Ace points out.

"I can do anything I like!" says the Doctor, defiantly. He finally pulls his umbrella free and stalks off. The others follow him.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

In Ratcliffe's office, Mike and Ratcliffe are standing against a wall with their hands in the air. The Black Dalek is pointing its weapon at them.

"Kneel!"

Ratcliffe and Mike obey.

The girl is leaning over the time controller, stroking it. "Repairs on time controller almost complete."

"Good!" Black says.

Ratcliffe leans toward Mike and says in a sotto voice: "Without that thing, they're stuck here. Someone in possession of that would have something to bargain with."

"For what, our lives?"

"Nothing so mundane. If we get that, we can demand anything."

"You never give up, do you."

The girl looks at them and smirks.

The unfortunate Corporal who had been guarding Mike staggers upstairs, holding his head. Allison, Rachel, the Doctor, Nita, Ace and Gilmore walk in the front door and see him.

"What happened?" Allison asks, placing her hand on his shoulder.

The Corporal bends over with hands on his knees. "Sergeant Smith."

"Is he all right?" Rachel asks Allison, who is examining his head.

"I've no idea, I'm a physicist."

The Doctors steps forward and grabs the corporal's ear, looking at it. "He'll be fine." He stands up straight. "Rachel and Allison, I need your help." He pushes past the women and Nita and Ace follow.

"Sorry?" asks Rachel.

"He said he needed our help," Allison replies.

"That's what I thought he said." Rachel grabs Allison's arm. "Get your hands off his scalp and come on." They follow the Doctor.

"You all right, Corporal?" asks Gilmore.

"Sir."

"Come with me. We'll search the building."

The girl carries the globe out into Ratcliffe's yard. "Time controller repaired and ready." She places it next to the casket. "Departure imminent."

"Destroy human captives!" Black orders.

"No!" cries Mike.

"No!" pleads Ratcliffe.

Just then, the Imperial Special Weapon Dalek blasts the yard gates to splinters. The Dalek war begins. Shots continue to be fired between the two factions.

Ratcliffe sees their chance to escape. "Now! Run!" Ratcliffe grabs the time controller and runs up the exterior staircase after Mike.

"Recover the time controller!" Black orders.

The girl follows and zaps Ratcliffe with electricity from her hands. Mike grabs the time controller and gets inside. The girl follows. The Black Dalek withdraws to the store room and leaves the grey Daleks to fight it out with the Imperials and the Special Weapons Daleks. It is hardly a fair match.

Rachel and Allison are carrying a television set down the stairs into the school cellar.

"When he said he needed our help, I had hoped it meant more in a technical area," complains Rachel.

"It was a vain hope," Allison replies.

The Doctor is fiddling with the transmat, fibre optic cables all over the place. "Ah, you brought it then. Put it down there."

Rachel and Allison put down the television they had struggled down the stairs with.

"Now, Doctor, will you please answer one question?" asks Rachel, sitting on a chair.

"Yes?"

"Why are two Dalek factions fighting each other?"

"Ace?" the Doctor asks Ace to explain.

"It's simple, isn't it," Ace replies. "Renegade Daleks are blobs."

"Blobs?" asks the Doctor, looking at her, puzzled.

Nita is on Ace's wavelength and continues Ace's explanation. "Imperial Daleks are bionic blobs with bits added. You can tell that Daleks are into racial purity. So, one lot of Daleks reckon the other lot of blobs are too different. They're mutants. Not pure in their blobbiness."

"Result?" asks the Doctor, impressed.

"They hate each other's chromosomes," Ace concludes. "War to the death."

The Doctor disentangles himself from the fibre optics of the transmat. He places his hat on his head. "Well, er, Nita, Ace, let's go and see which blobs are winning." He turns and begins ascending the staircase with Nita and Ace following.

"Doctor, how do you do that?" Allison asks, pointing to the transmat.

The Doctor stops and looks back at Allison, while the girls continue up the stairs. "Do what?"

"How do you just rewire a piece of alien machinery?"

"It's easy when you have nine hundred years' experience." The Doctor continues up the stairs.

On the Mothership:

"Force leader has recovered the Hand of Omega," a Dalek reports.

"Excellent. Order all forces to make immediate withdrawal," the emperor orders.

The Imperial Daleks leave Ratcliffe's yard, with the casket gliding behind them. Mike comes out of hiding and goes back down the staircase, carrying the time controller.

The Doctor, Nita and Ace have been hiding behind that gate again. Ace opens the gate and pokes her head out. "It's Mike."

The Doctor looks out and groans. "He's got the time controller. Typical human. You can always count on them to mess things up. Girls, get after him. Stay with him. See where he's going."

"Right," Nita says and moves off.

The Doctor grabs Nita and pulls her back. Ace stops too. "Oh, girls."

"What?" Ace asks.

The Doctor puts his hand on Nita's shoulder and looks into her eyes. "No heroics. I've got enough problems already."

Nita smiled. "Trust us." She turned away and ran off with Ace.

The Doctor shook his head, pulled the door shut with his umbrella handle and ran off in the other direction.

"Prepare to place the Hand of Omega into the control circuit," the emperor orders.

"I obey."

The casket glides into the shuttlecraft.

Allison and Rachel are still sitting in the school cellar.

"What are you going to do after all this is over?" Allison asks.

"Retire to Cambridge and write my memoirs," Rachel replies.

The hear Gilmore's voice. "Professor!"

"Subject to security vetting, of course," finishes Rachel.

Gilmore comes down the stairs. "The shuttle seems to be leaving." He turns and goes back up.

Allison stands up. "Good riddance to bad rubbish." They follow Gilmore.

The shuttlecraft takes off with a lot less damage than when it landed. The Doctor stands next the Tardis and waves it goodbye by tipping his hat to it. Ace and Nita are running down the street and also see it fly away.

"Oh, wicked!" exclaims Ace.

The little girls skips along.

The Doctor enters the school cellar, followed by Gilmore, Rachel and Allison.

"Well, Doctor, are we out of the woods?" asks Gilmore.

"Provided everything goes according to my plan," the Doctor replies, putting down his umbrella and hat next to the transmat.

"Plan?" asks Rachel.

"I, er… I don't suppose you could let us know what your plan is?" Allison asks.

"It's a surprise," the Doctor replies.

"Good. I love surprises," Rachel says, sarcastically.

"Prepare for shuttle docking," the Dalek on the Mothership reports.

The shuttlecraft docks into the mothership.

"Lock the Hand of Omega into the control circuit," the Emperor orders.

"Omega device is now locked in and running."


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

In the school cellar, the Doctor plugs a camera and microphone into the television and transmat. He switches on the television set and bangs it a few times. "Hello, hello, hello? Dalek mothership, come in please. Come in, please."

A grainy image of the Emperor Dalek appears on the television screen.

"Ah, there you are. This is the Doctor, President Elect of the High Council of Time Lords, Keeper of the legacy of Rassilon, Defender of the Laws of Time, Protector of Gallifrey. I call upon you to surrender the Hand of Omega and return to your customary time and place."

Rachel was staring at him in awe.

"Ah, Doctor!" replies the Emperor. "You have changed again. Your appearance is as inconstant as your intelligence. You have confounded me for the last time!"

The Emperor's dome swings up to reveal –

"Davros. I should have known. I see you've discarded the last vestige of your human form. Still no improvement."

"Save your insults for the weak-minded, Doctor."

"Will you return the Hand of Omega or not?"

"Are you threatening me? If so, it is most unwise."

"Every time our paths have crossed, I have defeated you."

Davros makes a gurgling sound that is supposed to be a laugh.

"You flatter yourself, Doctor. In the end, you are merely another Time Lord."

"Oh, Davros, I am far more than just another Time Lord."

Ace and Nita have followed Mike to the boarding house. Ace lets them in with the latch key and they look around cautiously. Ace closes the front door quietly. Nita opens the door to the front room and they go in quietly. They hear the door close behind them and spin around. Mike is waiting with a gun.

"Hello, girls."

"Would you really shoot us?" Ace asks.

"If I had to."

"You might have to," Nita says.

"Davros, the Hand of Omega is not to be trifled with."

"I think I am quite capable of handling the technology."

"I sincerely doubt that."

"Does it worry you, Doctor, that with it I will transform Skaro's sun into a source of unimaginable power? And with that power at my disposal, the Daleks shall sweep away Gallifrey and its impotent quorum of Time Lords! The Daleks shall become Lords of Time! We shall become all…"

The Doctor finishes Davros' sentence for him. "Powerful. Crush the lesser races. Conquer the galaxy. Unimaginable power. Unlimited rice pudding, et cetera, et cetera."

"Do not anger me, Doctor. I can destroy you and this miserable, insignificant planet."

The Doctor turns to the others as he continues to talk to Davros. Rachel and Allison are watching Davros, while Gilmore is looking at the Doctor with a frown. "Oh, wonderful. What power, what brilliance. You can wipe out the odd civilisation, enslave the occasional culture, but it still won't detract from the basic fundamental truth of your own impotence!"

Rachel grabs his shoulder. "Careful, Doctor."

The Doctor covers the microphone and leans back to Rachel. "Don't worry, I know what I'm doing."

"I will teach you the folly of your words, Doctor. I will destroy you and demonstrate the power of the Daleks!"

"Davros, I beg of you, don't use the Hand."

"Ah, Doctor, now you begin to fear."

"You're making a grave mistake."

"Activate the Omega device!"

"Omega device activated," a Dalek replies.

A little star flies out of the Mothership.

"Plotting course to home planet Skaro," reports a second Dalek.

"Now the Daleks shall become the Lords of Time!" Davros screams.

"Entering Skaro time zone. First stage expansion. Primary neutrino release," the second Dalek reports.

"Core collapse instigated," the first Dalek says.

"Danger! Instability!" the second Dalek shouts. "Reaction out of control."

"No, this cannot be correct!"

"Home planet Skaro about to vapourise," a Dalek reports.

The Hand leaves the system as the star goes supernova and takes the planets with it.

"You have tricked me!" Davros screams.

"No, Davros. You tricked yourself."

"Omega device returning," reports the second Dalek.

"Impact minus twenty five," the first Dalek warns.

"Do you think I would let you have control of the Hand of Omega?"

"Do not do this, I beg of you."

"Nothing can stop it now."

"Have pity on me."

"I have pity _for_ you."

"Fifteen," a Dalek counts down.

"Goodbye, Davros. It hasn't been pleasant." The Doctor turns off the transmission.

Davros lowers the Emperor's dome and backs off the bridge.

"Emperor abandoning bridge."

"Eight, seven."

"Emperor activating escape pod."

"Four, three."

"Escape pod leaving mothership."

"Two, one."

The Hand slams into the mothership. KaBOOM!

The Doctor is packing up the camera.

"What happened?" asks Rachel.

"I programmed the Hand of Omega to fly into Skaro's sun and turn it supernova."

"Super what?" asks Gilmore.

"He blew it up," Allison explains.

The Doctor folds up the camera and puts it in his pocket. "The resulting explosion destroyed Skaro," he flips his hat onto his head. "And the feedback destroyed the mothership. The Hand of Omega is now returning to Gallifrey."

At the boarding house, Mike is still pointing his gun at the girls. They sit down on the sofa. The doorbell rings.

Mike turns and walks toward the door with his gun still pointed at the girls. "You stay there."

"It might be the Doctor. Put the gun down, Mike. It's too late for that. Come on, Mike, who are you going to shoot with it, anyway?"

Mike opens the door to the foyer. "Just stay there."

"What a shame he turned out to be such a loser," Nita says, after Mike leaves the room. "He's a deadset spunk."

"Yeah," Ace sighs miserably.

"I'm sorry, I know you were wrapped in him. And I really thought he was trying to crack onto you."

"So did I."

Mike opens the front door. It is the little girl. She zaps him and he is thrown back onto the staircase. She walks into the house with a smirk on her face.

The Black Dalek is in the street when the Doctor, Gilmore, Rachel and Allison arrive in Red 4 from one direction, and the RAF lorry comes from the other. The Doctor gets out of the van.

Meanwhile the little girl enters the front room and smiles at Ace and Nita. They shrink back into the sofa.

The walks down the street towards the Dalek with this hand in his pocket. Gilmore and his soldiers gave him cover from behind the truck. "Dalek, you have been defeated. Surrender. You have failed." The RAF men were covering him from their lorry.

The BLACK was rocking from side to side. "Insufficient data."

"Your forces are destroyed. Your home planet a burnt cinder circling a dead sun."

"There is no data."

The Doctor stopped. "Even Davros, your creator, is dead."

The little girl is slowly walking towards Ace and Nita. The stand up and move in front of the fireplace. The girl raises her arms and sends energy bolts towards Ace and Nita. They duck just in time for the little girl to miss them and smash the mirror instead. She scowls at them.

"You have no superiors, no inferiors, no reinforcement, no hope, no rescue," the Doctor continues.

"You are lying. There is insufficient data."

"You're trapped a trillion miles and a thousand years from a disintegrated home."

The Black Dalek starts twirling around, groaning. "Out of control!"

"I have defeated you. You no longer serve any purpose."

"Cannot compute. Unstable."

The little girl grabs her head and starts swinging back and forth, squealing.

"Unstable." The Black Dalek atomises gently.

The little girl collapses. Ace and Nita pop their heads up from behind the sofa. Ace comes out from behind the sofa to pick her up and hug her, sitting on the sofa. Nita sits next to them and strokes the girl's hair. "It's all right. Don't worry. It's all over now."

The Doctor walks over and prods the smoking remains of the Black Dalek with his umbrella. "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust." He blows ashes off the tip of his umbrella and walks away.

At the cemetery, the chapel bell tolls and an organ plays as a coffin is carried in for the service. Group Captain Gilmore escorts Mrs Smith, with Allison and Rachel behind. The Doctor stops Ace and Nita at the threshold. "Time to leave."

"Yes," Ace agrees.

Nita turns and looks at him. "Doctor?"

The Doctor looks at her. "Yes?"

"We did good, didn't we?"

"Perhaps. Time will tell. It always does."

They turn to leave as the chapel door is closed.

 **A/N So there you have it. The Doctor pretty much admits to Davros that he is "The Other". Remember how he slipped up when telling Ace and Nita about the Time Lords creating time travel, and talked about how "we" had a hard time with it, and then quickly corrected himself? Anyway, just an epilogue to go now.**


	12. Epilogue

Epilogue

The Doctor, Nita and Ace arrive back at the TARDIS and go inside. The Doctor sends them into the vortex.

"Cocoa in the library?" he asks

It has become their custom after an adventure to unwind and "debrief" drinking cocoa in the library. They head to the kitchen to make their hot drinks and then move to the comfortable library and relax on the sofas. Shelves full of books line the walls and a fire roars in the fireplace.

"So these Daleks," Ace begins. "You and them go a long way back?"

"A very long way back," agrees the Doctor. He looks off into space as he thinks about his many dealings with the Daleks over the centuries.

"We ran into them when I first met the Doctor," Nita remarks.

"What exactly are the Daleks?" Ace asks.

"The Daleks are a warrior race made up of genetically engineered mutants belonging to fundamental DNA type 467-989 who were originally from the planet Skaro," the Doctor begins. "The mutants are usually encased inside armour consisting of polycarbide and the Dalekanium. On many occasions, the Daleks have openly acknowledged me as their greatest enemy.

"Intensely xenophobic and bent on universal domination, the Daleks are hated and feared throughout time and space."

"Yeah, but you say they were genetically engineered so where did they come from originally?" asks Nita. The Doctor hadn't really explained the first time she'd met the Daleks.

"The Daleks' bodies have mutated so drastically from their Kaled ancestors they have lost all humanoid appearance, save for one eye. The interdependence of biological and mechanical components make the Daleks a type of cyborg. As we learned today, the Imperial Daleks created by Davros during this Imperial-Renegade Dalek Civil War are true cyborgs, surgically connected to their shells."

"But what is the war about?" asks Nita.

"The Daleks broke into two factions shortly after the creation of the Daleks and the destruction of the Kaled City. The Daleks realised that Davros was impure as he was not 100% Dalek, so they turned against him and exterminated him. Or so we thought!"

"We?" Ace asks.

"I was there at the time," replies the Doctor. "Intercepted while travelling between Earth and a space station, I and my companions were transported to the planet Skaro, thousands of years in the past, on a mission for the Time Lords — to prevent the creation of the Daleks.

"However, Davros survived and his body remained under the ruins of the Kaled City. A group of Daleks decided that they needed Davros once again when the Daleks faced battle with the Movellans, so they allied with him shortly after he was woken by myself. This created a faction of Daleks that felt loyalty towards Davros because he was their creator and had helped them. Nonetheless, I defeated most of the Daleks and had Davros frozen in suspended animation and he was taken to a prison station.

"Davros was later released by Gustave Lytton and his mercenaries who were being used by the Supreme Dalek. He had a small injection device which could instantly convert humans and Daleks to his cause. He used this to build a small army of Daleks and human replicant troopers, then pitted them against the Supreme's forces. All of Davros' forces were destroyed, either by loyalist Daleks or the Movellan virus.

"Davros escaped to the planet Necros, where he began creating a new army of Daleks from human tissue. The Daleks led by the Supreme Dalek were alerted to Davros' presence. The Dalek Supreme's forces considered Davros a criminal. When they arrived, a short engagement between Davros' and the Supreme Dalek's forces ensued. Following his capture, Davros attempted to reveal me to the Daleks, but I was not recognised by the Supreme Dalek's forces (who had encountered my previous incarnation)."

"Incarnation?" Ace asks.

"A subject for another time. Anyway, Davros was taken to be transported to the Dalek homeworld of Skaro to stand trial. En route to Skaro, the ship carrying Davros crashed on the planet Lethe. Davros was rescued. He set himself up as "Professor Vaso", altering the perceptions of the humans on the colony so they would not recognise him as the "Great Healer". He attempted to create a new machine, a Juggernaut based on a Mechanoid design.

"Lethe's atmosphere prevented the Supreme Dalek retrieving Davros directly, but its forces intercepted the TARDIS, forcing me to serve as an agent of the Daleks and stop Davros' research and manipulations. I discovered two of Davros' Necros Daleks had survived the crash, but were destroyed following Davros' final gambit on the colony and the Supreme Dalek's intervention.

"While on Skaro, I rescued Davros just before the Daleks carried out their sentence of death and spoke to him of his future destiny as Emperor Dalek. I took Davros to Spiridon, where he could lick his wounds and bide his time. I intended to lay the groundwork for a Dalek civil war."

Nita nearly chokes on her cocoa. "What, so you're saying that you gave Davros the idea for this civil war that we encountered today?"

"It would seem so," admits the Doctor. "But it appears we have ended the war. Davros's Imperial Daleks defeated the Renegades with the aid of the Special Weapons Dalek. Further pursuing the plan I had already developed, while you were following Mike, I destroyed the Imperials using the Hand of Omega. I convinced the last of the Renegades to destroy itself by telling the Dalek that it no longer had a purpose."

"So you planned this all along?" Ace asks, amazed.

"Pretty much, yes," the Doctor replies, standing up. "Now you girls had better get some sleep. Off you go. I'll wash your cups." He shooed them out the door.


End file.
